The Communist Party of
Britain
We, the Communist Party of Britain, believe we have come to an important point in Britain’s history. With the upcoming election, we believe we can have a great deal of positive impact on the general good of the average working person in Britain. Basic needs and plans for the future of our country should be a consideration of your government and it is a basic tenant that the Communist Party of Britain believes in. We believe in the value and abilities of the working man and woman, the people who have made Britain the great country that it is today, and we thank you for your invaluable efforts to help your country. It is on Election Day that we ask you to support the party whose entire efforts are to give back to those who have lifted this country to greatness and who have borne the weight of this country long enough. Together we can see the fruits of your labor returned to you, where they belong.
Gay Marriage
The restriction of homosexual rights is yet another issue that the Communist Party wishes to rectify. As of December 5th homosexuals wishing to make their relationships official now can register these relationships. These will be recognized not as marriages, but as “civil partnerships”. In civil partnerships, gay partners can claim each other as next-of-kin, receive each others’ pension, and avoid inheritance taxes on goods passed. This is a progressive step; however it is not enough in the movement towards equality in our society. Committed homosexual couples should be allowed to have every opportunity that heterosexual couples enjoy, which include adoption, in vitro fertilization, and monetary rights.
Homosexuals should be given the right to marry, as heterosexual couples are allowed to marry. Marriages should be a legal relationship regulated by the government; the Anglican Church should have no say in such governmental policies. As religion, which has no place in our government, has become less of an important issue to the people of the United Kingdom, their acceptance of the issue has increased. The populace of the United Kingdom appears to be moving away from the traditional Anglican view of denying homosexuals their rights.
The Communist Party will give equality to all people of the United Kingdom; we will establish a system that does not exclude any minority groups. In regard to this issue, the Communist Party will legalize homosexual marriage in order to foster the national equality at the heart of our party. Equality is necessary for the development of a state, and homosexuals should not be excluded from this development of our society.
Gasoline Tax
We, the Communist Party of Great Britain, welcome all others who are tired of the repressive ways of the capitalist leaders of the world. These individuals have embedded the idea that all people have the ability to rise to greatness in the minds of the working class. They use this idea to keep the workers of the world down in order to maintain their hegemonic ways over the masses. It is time for all workers of the world to come together and overcome the capitalist hegemony. However, before this change of power can take place at a global level, it must take place right here in Great Britain. So we call all workers to take a step back and look at their lives and decide for them, is this life that I want my family to live?
Over the past few years our great country has seen a major increase in the gasoline tax. This has directly led to higher gasoline prices for the consumer. Even though it may appear that this increase is helping the capitalist oil companies, it is not. The increase is due to a tax, which is sent directly to the government, the oil companies are not receiving any additional income from the increased gas tax. Therefore, as citizens are cutting down on their consumption of gasoline, the capitalist oil companies are feeling a direct blow. In addition, as consumers are cutting down on the amount of gasoline they use, the environment is also feeling a direct impact, but it is not negative. By slowing down the amount of gasoline is used, less byproducts from combustion vehicles are being released into the atmosphere. This decrease in byproducts such as carbon dioxide will slow the rate of the greenhouse effect and global warming. The Communist Parts supports no decrease in the gasoline tax for these reasons. The capitalist oil companies are taking advantage of a dependency that workers have developed for gasoline for their own personal gains. In addition, it is time for the citizens of Great Britain to man up and realize that, at the rate we are going, our planet may not be able to support life for our descendents.
We, the Communist Party of Great Britain, if apart of a coalition government within Parliament will see to it that the high gasoline tax is not tampered with despite opposition. We will do our best to make sure that capitalist oil companies are not allowed to take advantage of the masses. In addition we will see to it that our environment is preserved so that our children and grandchildren will not have to deal with our misuse of abuse of the environment. Once we have established our ideas within the walls of the United Kingdom, we will then set out to make sure that other countries, such as the United States and China, are doing their part to protect the masses from capitalist hegemonic individuals and the conservation of our planet.
Immigration and Asylum
The current
policies of the United Kingdom, regarding immigration and asylum, allow for the
sanctioned exploitation of the common worker through the practices of a corrupt
capitalist system. The aim of the
Communist Party of Britain is to put an end to the xenophobic, racist policies
that promote the continued abuse of migrants in the pursuit of capitalistic gain
by creating a socialist Britain run by the people, for the people. The Communist
Party of Britain is dedicated to the development of an immigration system that
will provide all workers, migrants and citizens alike, with the highest level of
mobility throughout Britain in search of fair and equal opportunity to work.
Refugee’s fleeing their country of citizenship for fear of persecution will be
provided extended worker’s visas while the situation in their country of origin
is under review. The Communist
Party of Britain is intent on providing all workers the ability to contribute to
the economic prosperity of the state through the implementation of
socialism. The bias policies of a
capitalistic society will be immediately halted through the creation of a
socialist state. It is the ultimate
goal of the Communist Party of Britain to take the power of the capitalist
elites and return it to the workers that both built and sustain the great nation
of Britain.
Iranian Nuclear Proliferation
We, the Communist Party of Britain, believe that the growing crisis of nuclear proliferation, and in particular Iran, warrants the attention of all nations. We believe that National Sovereignty should be respected all over the world, not only those the United States thinks it should. Still, the Communist Party recognizes the threat of certain countries possessing nuclear weapons. To this extent though, we do not advocate invasion or any other hostile actions that would only escalate tensions and perhaps lead us down a path of destruction. We believe that a strong partnership of all nations can be used to resolve the situation diplomatically. In particular the leaders of Europe, France, Germany, and we the United Kingdom, hold a responsibility to offer Iran another way out. Only a strong coalition between all nations can resolve this situation in a peaceful diplomatic way that can offer a more permanent solution than just invading and destroying a nation’s ability to create the weapons. The Communist Party advocates a diplomatic resolution to this situation and rule out using violence to further the dissolve the international community and turn states against each other.
Pension Reform
On the issue of pensions, the communists believe that it is the greed of the capitalist owners of production and the shareholders of companies that have caused the impending doom of the pension plan in the United Kingdom. Be they public, private, or governmental pension plans, the capitalist system itself is to blame for its own poor fiscal planning.
The
average worker is the one hit hardest by this pension crisis; the wealthy have
more concrete investments and often multiple pension plans. The owners sell the products made by the
workers and the revenue that capitalists receive from the sale of these
commodities is more than enough to pay the wages bill, other production costs,
taxes and renewed investment. The
balance—capitalist profit—goes mostly in dividends to shareholder capitalists,
in rent to landowning capitalists and in interest payments to money-lending
capitalists…workers in Britain’s manufacturing industry, for example, create
almost twice the value of their wages.
The portion they do not receive back in wages or social benefits is the
‘surplus value’ kept by their employers.
(“The British Road to Socialism, Chapter 1:
Capitalism and Crisis”
http://www.communist-party.org.uk/index.php?file=brs&brs=brs_ch1.txt)
The governmental pension is enormously under funded and overly drawn on by the people. Like the United States and many other European countries, Britain had a large post-WWII Baby Boom and has since slowed birth rates. Because of this, a smaller number of people are paying into the system, while a larger number of people are drawing on its benefits every year. The Pensions Commission states that there was not enough foresight when first implementing the program and although we cannot predict the future, it is because of this slowing of the birth rate and the promise of such great benefits, that the government is unable to keep up. The Executive Summary also issued by the Pensions Commission it lists four possible options for the pensioners: they must accept a lower standard of living, save more, pay more taxes into their national insurance, or raise the retirement age (http://www.pensionscommission.org.uk/%20publications/2004/annrep/exec-summary.pdf).
We argue that the profit made after providing wages and benefits should be used to pay into pensions, make the factories safer for current workers, to keep the technology current in order to keep the business competitive against the overproduction caused by capitalism, and to raise wages if the employees work hard; all of this so the company keep them healthy and in a respectable financial position that is indicative of their collective efforts on the part of workers worldwide.
The Single Currency
As the Communist Party of Great Britain, our goal is to eradicate the exploitations by the capitalist bourgeoisie of Great Britain and throughout the United Kingdom. According to “Britain’s Road to Socialism,” “The wealth, effort and ingenuity which could be used to improve the living conditions of working people are, instead, wasted in war preparations or otherwise used to expand the profits of the giant corporations and banks that dominate the economy and society.”[1] Although Great Britain still is not ready to completely accept wholesale socialism, we believe that it is capable.
The concern over the adoption of a common currency with twelve other European nations is counterproductive to the goals of this party. The idea only shows how “the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs for the whole bourgeoisie.” [2] The very idea of a European Union itself only promotes a larger-scale bourgeoisie:
“The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralized the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralization. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class interest, one frontier, and one customs tariff.” [3]
The Five Tests [4] that will be used to determine the benefits for the United Kingdom include two criteria which aim directly for the profit of elite bourgeoisie:
3. Would joining the EMU create better conditions for firms making long- term decisions to invest in Britain?
4. What impact would entry into the EMU have on the competitive position of the UK’s financial services industry, particularly the City’s wholesale markets?
The overarching political question of this debate is whether or not the United Kingdom is jeopardizing its sovereignty. “Euro skeptics,” those who oppose the euro, argue that Great Britain’s say in policies by the European Central Bank may or may not have much of an impact. As the membership to the European Union grows, and more members adopt the Euro, policies will be aimed at the majority, and that may or may not include the United Kingdom. [5]
Furthermore, if Great Britain joins the European Union, it will lose its ability to set its own interest rates and must follow the fixed interest rates that all the other twelve members follow, which is set by the European Central Bank. Consequently, should economic events call for changes in interest rates in Great Britain, she cannot do so.[6] As far as international trade is concerned, Britain already independently enjoys commerce with countries outside the European Union. Moreover, British merchants whose consumers are only local markets could be negatively affected. Britain’s future success will depend on how competitive she is willing to be, not what currency she is using.[7]
Vision for the Future
Throughout the United Kingdom the pursuit of economic gain has become the primary concern of the corrupt capitalist agenda. Politicians and the corporate elite fatten their pockets while raping the land and neglecting the common worker, this cannot be allowed to continue. The Communist Party of Britain is intent on uniting the people of Britain that have been divided among class lines created by the capitalist society that benefits so few. Socialism is the only system of government with the ability to place the power and wealth of this great nation where it belongs, in the hands of the people. The Communist Party of Britain will serve the needs of the British people first while the priorities of other parties is to satisfy the monetary greed of their corporate masters. Promoting equal opportunity for the working class of Britain and providing all people with the benefits of the economic prosperity of the state can only be achieved through the realization of a socialist Britain and consolidation of voting power in the Communist Party of Britain.